1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a loop pin that attaches a tag such as a brand label, a price tag, a material description tag, or an instruction tag of a product such as clothing, shoes, or a bag, and more particularly to loop pin assembly in which a plurality of such loop pins are paralelly arranged to each other with closed distance formed therebetween each detatchably connected to connecting bars and each loop pin is used by separating same from the assembly utilizing a specially designed gun or the like each one after other.
2. Description of the Related Arts
A variety of types of loop pins have been used in the past to tie up such products as clothing, sundries, sandals, and shoes, and to attach such items as brand labels or price tags thereto.
For example, such a loop pin 1 has a filament 7 that is passed through the tag to form a loop, an insertion head portion 5 being provided in an end thereof, and a socket portion 6 provided on the other end thereof and having a hole 6a through which the head portion 5 passes.
And as shown in FIGS. 19 and 20, a plurality of loop pins are temporarily attached in parallel to each other to two parallely arranged connection bars 2, 3 enabling their easy removal therefrom.
A loop pin 1 is integrally formed of, for example, a synthetic resin material, such as nylon or polypropylene and has an extremely high resistance to tensile stress. When the insertion head portion 5 is passed through the narrow part (blade part) of the socket portion 6, blades provided in the region of the insertion hole open, so that the insertion head portion 5 is held within the socket portion 6 so that it cannot be reversed out therefrom, thereby completing the attachment of the looped label.
However, in the past, when such loop pin assembly in which a plurality of loop pins are removably and temporally connected to the connecting bars, is used, is has been required from a production cost point of view, that a pitch formed among those loop pins paralelly arranged to each other, should be set at fine distance as possible.
However, when such pitch would be shortened, a separate problem would be arisen in that a certain amount of strength of a connecting portion of the loop pin is not necessarily obtained.
FIG. 18 is a partial cross-section view of the mated condition between an insertion head portion 5 an a socket portion 6 of a loop pin according to the prior art. In the past, a small-diameter part 5b that connected an end portion 5a of the insertion head portion 5 and the base end 5c was generally formed by two steps.
In the area surrounding the insertion hole 6b of the socket portion 6, a pair of locking blades 6a were provided on the left and right. Additionally, the locking blades 6a protrude from a base part 6c having substantially the same radius as the filament 7.
With the above-noted loop pin according to the prior art, however, from the production cost as well as characteristic of the product, there has been a new movement in that the material of the loop pin 1 had been changed from Nylon to Polypropylene in these years.
However, generally speaking strength of Polypropylene resin is relatively lower than that of Nylon and accordingly, it would be necessary to set each of dimensions of such loop pin 1 at a size relatively larger than those of the loop pin made of Nylon.
Accordingly, when a same level of the break strength of a connected portion of a loop pin made of Nylon and formed when an insertion head portion 5 is inserted into a socket portion 6 would be realized with the loop pin made of Polypropylene, a width of the socket portion 6 is necessarily increased and thus a pitch of the loop pins 1 formed therebetween when they are arranged in parallel with each other as a loop assembly, would probably exceed over 3.5 mm.
Thus when a unit length L of the loop assembly is restricted, a number of the loop pins arranged in the unit length L of the loop pin assembly have to be reduced causing an efficiency for providing such loop pin into goods would be greatly reduced.
On the other hand, when if the pitch formed among the loop pins is shortened, a thickness of the socket portion would necessarily be reduced so that it would be difficult to obtain a desired break strength of the connecting portion of the loop pin.
Further, as shown in FIG. 18, when the insertion head portion 5 is inserted into the hole 6a of the socket portion 6, because of the rocking of the insertion head portion 5 in the direction of the arrows E, an uneven force is applied to the locking blades 6a, which lead to the possible damage of the locking blades.
Additionally, because the locking blades of the prior art were weak and had ends that could be easily deformed up and down and to the left and right, with even a small change in the insertion head portion, the mated part of the insertion head portion could become unattached.
Additionally, when a plurality of prior art loop pins were temporarily attached in parallel to two connection bars, it was not possible to achieve a small loop pin spacing, because of the limitation imposed by the diameter of the insertion head portion.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a loop pin made of nylon, polypropylene or the like, which features restricted rocking of the head thereof, and prevention of damage to the locking blades.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a loop pin made of Polypropylene having a sufficient break strength of the connecting portion thereof even in a case in that each one of the loop pins having a compact dimension so that each of the loop pins can be parallely arranged to each other with a tine pitch formed therebetween removably connected to the connecting bars.
In order to achieve the above-noted objects, the present invention has the following basic technical constitution.
Specifically, the present invention is a loop pin in a loop pin assembly in which a plurality of loop pins, each comprising a flexible filament, an insertion head portion provided on one end portion of the filament and having an appropriate mating part and a socket portion provided on the other end of the filament and having a hole for irreversibly passing the insertion head therethrough, the filament, the insertion head portion and the socket portion being integrally formed into one body, are arranged in parallel with each other through connecting bars to which a part of each of the loop pins being detatchably connected thereto, the loop pin being configured so that the insertion head portion and the socket portion are capable to be connected to each other between the mating part formed on an edge portion of the insertion head portion and provided in a vicinity of a connecting portion formed between the insertion head portion and the filament and a step-like portion provided within the through hole formed within the socket portion, and further wherein the loop pin being made of polypropylene and a pitch formed among the plurality of the loop pins parallely arranged to each other being set at less than 3.5 mm, preferably less than 3.1 mm, and break strength of the connected portion when the insertion head portion and the socket portion are mated to each other, being at least 5.0 kg.
A second aspect of the present invention is a loop pin which comprising a flexible filament, an insertion head portion provided on one end portion of the filament and having an appropriate mating part and a socket portion provided on the other end of the filament and having a hole for irreversibly passing the insertion head therethrough, the filament, the insertion head portion and the socket portion being integrally formed into one body, the loop pin being configured so that the insertion head portion and the socket portion are capable to be connected to each other between the mating part formed on an edge portion of the insertion head portion and provided in a vicinity of a connecting portion formed between the insertion head portion and the filament and a step-like portion provided within the through hole formed within the socket portion, and further wherein the loop pin being made of polypropylene and break strength of the connected portion when the insertion head portion and the socket portion are mated to each other, being at least 5.0 kg.
A third aspect of the present inventions relate to a loop pin made of either one of Nylon or Polypropylene and having an improved beak strength at the connecting portion formed by the insertion head portion and the socket portion, and, for example, a loop pin which comprising a flexible filament, an insertion head portion provided on one end portion of the filament and having an appropriate mating part and a socket portion provided on the other end of the filament and having a hole for irreversibly passing the insertion head therethrough, the filament, the insertion head portion and the socket portion being integrally formed into one body, and further wherein two flat surfaces parallely arranged to each other are formed on a part of the insertion head portion along the axial direction.
And further aspect of the present invention is a loop pin which comprising a flexible filament, an insertion head portion provided on one end portion of the filament and having an appropriate mating part and a socket portion provided on the other end of the filament and having a hole for irreversibly passing the insertion head therethrough, the filament, the insertion head portion and the socket portion being integrally formed into one body, and wherein a pair of locking blades are formed on an inside side surface of the through hole provided in the socket portion, and further wherein a thickness of a base part of the locking blades is thicker than the radius of the filament.